Taiji's Philosophy

“Taiji Quan” has been translated as “The Grand Ultimate Boxing,” but that may be a little confusing. Ji means an extreme, and a good example is the North and South Poles of the earth. In Chinese the North Pole is “beiji” and the South Pole is “nanji.” In a philosophical sense when people talk about the Poles people are talking about Yin and Yang. In Chinese philosophy Taiji is the Absolute (or “Grand Ultimate”), the primary source of all things.

Following this metaphor of the Poles, people are not interested in the general area around the poles. people are not interested in the Arctic Circle, because something unique happens at the exact North or South Pole point. “At its extreme Yin becomes Yang and extreme Yang becomes Yin.” people want to stand on the exact spot of the South Pole where any step people take in any direction is north. “Tai” is often used to mean “very.” In this context the best word would be “extreme.” So Taiji is the extreme pole, the extreme limit. So you can see that Taiji Quan, this slow moving exercise, is really an extreme sport. Which means that Taiji is the Spiritual borderline betpeopleen the individual mind and the Infinite. Taiji is not Yin and Yang, it is the mother of Yin and Yang. Taiji is the “One without a Second” while Wu Ji is the unknowable Transcendent Spirit beyond that. The idea that the manifest world is ultimately Void of any inherent existance without that Transcendant Spirit is what the Buddhists call Emptiness, Sunyata. (Sunyata is a Sanskrit word, in Chinese it is “kong,” emptiness.) When active, Taiji separates. It becomes Yin and Yang and thereby everything in the universe becomes manifest. In stillness, for example when people meditate, everything harmonizes and again comes into the one-ness of Taiji, which itself can resolve into Wu Ji, Emptiness.

What does this mean for the practice of Taiji Quan? It means that Taiji practice must balance activity with a peaceful mind. When people have that people can begin to research the meaning of Yin and Yang in every aspect of every movement. By separating what people do into Yin Yang pairs such as empty-full, open-close, energy rising and energy falling, and so on, people come to understand ourselves, and our interaction with the world and other people better. Ultimately people can realize the interaction betpeopleen the manifest world and Transcendent Spirit. These seem to be two, but are One in the light of the unifying principle of Taiji.